Archbishop calls for simple lifestyle

Villegas, who was particularly moved by the recent disaster, has written a prayer calling on God to spare the Philippines from further disasters.

Philippines

December 06 2013, 10:43 AM

Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan has called for “simplicity of lifestyle” to make it possible to help “the displaced and grieving typhoon victims.”

“The first immediate concern is helping our suffering countrymen in Leyte and Samar… We must move forward from relief work to rehabilitation work then hopefully to developmental programs,” Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said in a recent interview.

According to a recent report from Caritas Manila, weeks after the disaster, as many as 1.6 million families in Samar and Leyte continue to be in dire need of basic necessities like food and toiletries. The Manila archdiocese’s charity arm called on the public to donate basic provisions like rice, biscuits, bottled water, coffee, canned goods, soap, toothpaste, new underwear, cooking ware, beddings, tool boxes, working/school clothes, crucifix/rosaries.

Villegas, who was particularly moved by the recent disaster, has written a prayer calling on God to spare the Philippines from further disasters. “It is Jesus who is suffering. We must serve the Lord among our suffering countrymen,” he said.

Villegas assumed the office of CBCP president together with Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles as vice president on December 1.

Aside from concerns on the national level, the CBCP sees the importance to be in step with the major directions Pope Francis has set in his first apostolic letter, Evangelii Gaudium.“It is a heart-warming meditation by the Pope. It must be translated to life,” the archbishop added.

Released at the conclusion of the Year of Faith, Evangelii Gaudium or The Joy of the Gospel, is a 48,000-word document that Catholic leaders and thinkers are calling the “blueprint for evangelization in the 21st century.”